Your menopause mindset

Oestrogen is a comfort blanket that supports positivity and happiness - when it's gone, we need to create our own replacement. Susan Saunders shows you how to create the life you want in your 'power decade'

- Susan Saunders

1 PUT YOURSELF FIRST

If you start to see a healthy lifestyle as an extension of the other priorities in your life, the perspective changes. As coach Meera Bhogal says, 'Sometimes we need to make difficult decisions, because we could be here for another 30 or 40 years. Being "selfish" now is going to help you be able to give to others more over the coming years.'

2 FIND YOUR PURPOSE

What does your power decade feel and look like? Visualise that wonderful, healthy life you want for yourself. Really see it in your mind's eye, and trust that you will be able to make it happen. Your purpose is to create that life. The next step on from that is to align your behaviours so that your life in the present leads you towards the life you want.

3 DISCOVER SELF-BELIEF

Self-efficacy refers to how we view challenges - either as something to master or to avoid. Believing we can rise to those challenges makes us more likely to be able to manage them, and puts us at lower risk of depression and stress. Can you see a challenge as an opportunity to grow? Reflect on the skills you've learned in life, and the tools you have at your disposal.

4 FIND THE JOY